Growth Mechanism BN

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Article
Elucidation of the growth mechanism of

sputtered 2D hexagonal boron nitride nanowalls
Duc-Quang Hoang, Paulius Pobedinskas, Shannon S. Nicley, Stuart Turner,
Stoffel D. Janssens, Marlies K. Van Bael, Jan D'Haen, and Ken Haenen
Cryst. Growth Des., Just Accepted Manuscript DOI: 10.1021/acs.cgd.6b00191 Publication Date (Web): 25 May 2016
Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on June 4, 2016
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Crystal Growth & Design
Elucidation of the growth mechanism of sputtered

2D hexagonal boron nitride nanowalls
Duc-Quang Hoang,+,,* Paulius Pobedinskas,+, Shannon S. Nicley,+, Stuart Turner, Stoffel D.
Janssens,+, Marlies K. Van Bael,+, Jan D'Haen,+, Ken Haenen,+,,*
+
Institute for Materials Research (IMO), Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium
IMOMEC, IMEC vzw, Diepenbeek, Belgium
Electron Microscopy for Materials Science (EMAT), University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
E-mails: quang.hoang@uhasselt.be and ken.haenen@uhasselt.be

KEYWORDS: hBN Nanowalls, Hydrogen Etching and Thermal Effects, RF Sputtering.
ABSTRACT
Hexagonal boron nitride nanowall thin films were deposited on Si(100) substrates using a
Ar(51%)/N2(44%)/H2(5%) gas mixture by unbalanced radio frequency sputtering. The effects of
various target-to-substrate distances, substrate temperatures, and substrate tilting angles were
investigated. When the substrate is close to the target, hydrogen etching plays a significant role
in the film growth, while the effect is negligible for films deposited at a farther distance. The
relative quantity of defects was measured by a non-destructive infrared spectroscopy technique
that characterized the hydrogen incorporation at dangling nitrogen bonds at defect sites in the
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
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deposited films. Despite the films deposited at different substrate tilting angles, the nanowalls of
those films were found to consistently grow vertical to the substrate surface, independent of the
tilting angle. This implies that chemical processes, rather than physical ones, govern the growth
of the nanowalls. The results also reveal that the degree of nanowall crystallization is tunable by
varying the growth parameters. Finally, evidence of hydrogen desorption during vacuum
annealing is given based on measurements of infrared stretching (E1u) and bending (A2u) modes
of the optical phonons, and the H-N vibration mode.
INTRODUCTION
Understanding the effect of various experimental parameters on the growth of hexagonal boron
nitride (hBN) nanostructures is important for the realization of promising applications for hBN,
including ultraviolet optical devices,1 water cleaning,2,3 electron emission4 and other lowdimensional BN-based applications.5-8 A greater understanding of hBN nanostructure growth can
also provide insight into the fundamental properties of BN, such as optical/microstructural
properties,9-13 lattice dynamics,14-17 and correlations between defects and electronic/magnetic
properties.18-20 hBN has structural similarity to graphite, in which the boron and nitrogen atoms
are alternatively placed in a hexagonal ring. In the hexagonal lattice plane, the atoms are
connected by strong covalent bonds to form hBN sheets, while interaction between sheets is
weak, and governed by van der Waals forces.5,6,9-11,21 Most reports in the literature focus on
chemical vapor deposition of hBN, however there have been a few demonstrations using a
physical vapor deposition (PVD) method.22,23 The CVD method is usually used at high
temperature (> 900 C),3 which causes gas precursors to react chemically. The advantage of the
PVD method is that it can be used at much lower temperatures ( 500 C),22,23 enabling film
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deposition on temperature sensitive substrates. Moreover, PVD machines can be easily up-scaled
and are used in industry to coat substrates of several square meters and more. We recently
reported that hBN can be synthesized by PVD, leading to vertically oriented nanowalls on
various unintentionally heated substrate materials when hydrogen (H) is added to the Ar/N2 gas
mixture.23 H incorporation is critical to the formation of the nanowall structures, as only
amorphous films are grown for gas chemistries without H addition.24 It was also shown that there
was no obvious effect on the growth orientation of the hBN nanowalls when different substrate
materials, such as silicon, sapphire, quartz, or fused silica, were used. This work aims to further
elucidate the mechanism that governs the nanowall growth.
EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
line
BN
target
unbalanced
magnetron
cathode
mass flow controllers
gas
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90
plasma
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holder
thermocouple
probe
Figure 1. Simplified schematic of the experimental setup in the home-built unbalanced 13.56
MHz RF sputtering system used in this work, showing the target-to-substrate distance (d) and
substrate tilting angle ().
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hBN nanowalls were synthesized in a home-built, unbalanced, 13.56 MHz radio frequency (RF)
sputtering system.23 The optimal gas mixture leading to nanowall formation, determined in our
previous work23 was Ar(51%)/N2(44%)/H2(5%), with a cathode power of 75 W. A 3 inch,
pyrolytic BN ceramic target (Kurt J. Lesker), with 99.99% purity and a density of 1.96103
kgm-3 was used. The working pressure was 2.110-2 mbar. As the properties of the plasma
depend on the cathode power and gas composition,23,25-30 these parameters were fixed for all
depositions of this work. The target-to-substrate distance (d) was varied from 3 cm to 6 cm, and
the substrate tilting angle (), as shown in Fig. 1, was set to 0 or 90. The hBN thin films were
deposited on 11 cm2 Si(100) substrates. The substrate temperature (Tsub) can be controlled up to
500 C during deposition, using a bench-top power supply (VOLTCRAFT VSP 1410 40 V/10
A). Tsub was monitored during depositions by a K-type thermocouple probe with a
EUROTHERM 2408 readout. Morphological properties of the films in both plan-view and crosssection geometries were studied using a FEI Quanta 200F field emission gun scanning electron
microscope
(SEM).23
High
resolution
transmission
electron
microscopy
(HRTEM)
measurements were carried out on a JEOL 3000F microscope, operated at 300 kV acceleration
voltage. TEM cross-sections were prepared by a gentle milling technique,31 in which samples are
cut by a diamond wire, and opposing top faces are stuck together. The resulting doubled crosssections are milled down to 1 m thickness by hand, then thinned to electron transparency by ion
milling.31 The hBN wall feature distributions in SEM images were measured and performed with
Digital Micrograph and ImageJ software packages.32 Optical properties of the films were
characterized by Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy techniques.33 FTIR
spectra were taken on a Thermo Fisher NicoletTM 8700 FTIR instrument with a KBr beam
splitter, in transmission mode with normal incidence to the film surface, in the frequency range
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of 400-4000 cm-1 with a resolution of 2.0 cm-1. Raman spectra were obtained using a Horiba
Jobin Yvon T64000 Raman spectrometer equipped with a BXFM Olympus 9/128 microscope
and a Horiba JY Symphony CCD detector, using a 488 nm Lexel SHG laser, in the
backscattering configuration. The chemical composition of several films was examined by
energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) measurements on an EDAX module of the FEI Quanta SEM.
The EDX spectra of the films were compared with those obtained from the BN target used in the
depositions to confirm the purity of the films.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Nanowall growth rate and orientation: Influence of d and
To evaluate the effect of d and on the growth rate (RG), hBN films at varying d were deposited,
in two series, at = 0 and 90. The substrates were not intentionally heated, and the plasma
conditions resulted in Tsub varying from 78 C at d = 6 cm to 125 C at d = 3 cm. Cross-sectional
SEM images of the films, like those shown in Fig. 2(b) and (c), were used to determine the film
thicknesses. The RG values were calculated by dividing the film thickness by the total deposition
time. The RG decreases linearly with increasing d for both = 0 and 90, as shown in Fig. 2(a),
however there is a difference in the slope of the RG vs. d curve when the substrate was tilted from
0 to 90. The decrease in the RG for the 90 case is believed to be caused by a reduction of
interactions with the plasma and/or scattering events at the substrate surface, which also reduce
the total effect on the RG as the d changes.26-28 Fig. 2(b) and (c) also show that the growth
direction of the films is independent of the substrate tilting angle. The images show that hBN
nanowalls grow vertically to the substrate surface in both films, despite the change in from 0
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to 90. This is in agreement with previous work29 on the growth of hBN by RF PVD, in which
nanowalls were also shown to grow preferentially in the vertical direction, such that the c-axis of
the hBN covalent plane is parallel to the substrate surface.29
Figure 2. (a) Growth rate (RG) values as a function of target-to-substrate distance (d) for two
substrate tilting angles (). The lines serve as guides for the eye. Each point represents a single
deposition experiment, with error bars computed independently for each film, as the standard
deviation for the measurement of 10 different points in the cross-sectional SEM image. (b) and
(c) Cross-sectional SEM images of two samples with same thickness (2.9 m) deposited at d =
3 cm with a substrate tilting angle ( ) of 0 and 90, respectively. Three areas denoted as R1, R2
and R3 in (c) are defined by the imaging contrast and detailed in the text.
The size of the nanowalls can be determined based on the contrast in the SEM images in Fig.
2(b) and (c). The film with = 0 consists of large hBN nanowalls throughout the film
thickness. The film with = 90 has smaller hBN nanowalls and three regions can be
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distinguished, denoted as R1, R2 and R3 in Fig. 2(c). Nanowalls can be clearly seen in the middle
area (R2) of the film. The region R3, which corresponds to the top ~1.3 m of the film, shows
reduced image contrast, which could be the result of nanowalls that were overlapped at wall
branches in this region. The area located just above the Si surface, R1, which corresponds to the
first stages of hBN growth, also shows a similar contrast.
The microstructure of the hBN nanowalls, as shown in Fig. 2(b) and (c), can be explained by a
growth mechanism based on effects of the RG. There seems to be a relatively constant lateral
growth speed, which causes overlapping between neighboring nanowalls. When the growth
proceeds more rapidly in the vertical direction, as is the case for samples with higher RG, a
reduction in the overlapping of neighboring hBN nanowalls is observed. This is because the
lateral growth processes that cause overlapping have relatively less time to occur for films
deposited with a higher RG. In this case, large spaces form between the hBN nanowalls, as seen
in the morphology in Fig. 2(b), as compared to the lower growth rate case of Fig. 2(c).
If the initial RG in a deposition process is high, as is the case for the film shown in Fig. 2(b), then
the nucleation density of hBN nanowalls is reduced, when compared to films grown with lower
RG. The higher nucleation density on the surface of the slower RG film causes the formation of
the near surface region of low contrast labeled R1 in Fig. 2(c), but such a region is not visible for
the higher RG case shown in Fig. 2(b). For films with very low initial growth rates, as is
especially the case as the d approaches 6 cm, the density of nucleated BN particles is very high,
and the resulting deposited film morphology is therefore expected to be governed by the hBN
granular phase,29,30 and/or mixed stacking types of different BN phases. However, the SEM
image resolution shown in Fig. 2 is not enough to clearly determine the dominant growth phase.
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Figure 3. (a) Low magnification cross-sectional TEM image of a 300 nm-thick hBN film
deposited at d = 3 cm and = 0. (b) and (c) are high resolution TEM images recorded at typical
areas near to (-b) and far from (-c) the Si(100) substrate surface, respectively.
To further investigate the morphological evolution of the deposited BN film near the Siinterface, cross-sectional TEM images of a 300 nm-thick film deposited at d = 3 cm and = 0
were taken, as shown in Fig. 3. The TEM cross-section preparation method31 results in two headon sample surfaces on top of each other in a single cross-section. A thickness of approximately
300 nm was selected for the deposition so that the entire film growth could be seen in the TEM
image. The measured thickness of (300 20) nm from the TEM measurement shown in Fig. 3(a)
is in very good agreement with the intended growth thickness, which was controlled by a growth
time computed from the estimated RG, as shown in Fig. 2(a). The variation in the crystalline
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grain structure observed in Fig. 3(a) indicates that the BN film is not homogeneous in the
direction of film growth. Closer to the Si(100)/hBN interface, there is a region of lower contrast
in the TEM image, which might indicate the presence of less crystalline structures at this
interface, which would be consistent with the observations from Fig. 2. In order to clarify the
structure at the Si-hBN interface, we performed high resolution TEM imaging. A typical
HRTEM image of the Si/hBN interface is displayed in Fig. 3(b). The turbostratic phase of BN, in
which there is poor alignment between imperfect BN planes, and the amorphous phase, in which
there is no long range ordering in the atomic structure, are dominant in this region. Farther from
the interface, regions of the well-aligned hexagonal phase of BN start to appear, as shown in Fig.
3(c). Once these hBN regions, which become the hBN nanowalls, begin to form, the turbostratic
and amorphous BN phases still continue to grow, but are then limited to the spaces in between
these wall regions. The hBN growth within the nanosheets, as shown in Fig. 3(c), is not perfectly
ordered, and shows variation in the lattice spacing between hBN sheets. This implies that there is
an existence of defects within hBN nanowalls. The nanowall shown in Fig. 3(c) appears to grow
at an angle to the arbitrary orientation of the bottom of the image, as high magnification TEM
imaging can result in a rotation of the imaging orientation. However, as can be seen in Fig. 3 (a),
the dominant growth direction of the nanowalls is in the vertical direction with respect to the
sample surface.
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B. Nanowall optical and structural properties: Influence of film thicknesses
Figure 4. SEM images for a series of hBN films with different thicknesses which were deposited
at d = 3 cm (a-d) and d = 6 cm (e-h).
As shown in Fig. 2, the growth behavior can change over the course of a growth process as a
function of the film thickness. The relative lateral growth rate that results in overlapping growth
processes of the walls, as compared to the vertical RG that results in larger hBN nanowalls with
greater spacing in between them, can vary throughout a single deposition process, as shown in
Fig. 2(c). To better understand this effect, a series of hBN films were deposited at d = 3 cm and d
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= 6 cm with different film thicknesses. The substrates were unintentionally heated, which results
in sample temperatures of 78 C at d = 6 cm and 125 C at d = 3 cm. The resulting morphologies
are shown in Fig. 4. As expected from the observations of Fig. 2, the hBN wall widths increase
with increasing film thickness. The films deposited at d = 6 cm show smaller initial wall
dimensions, however the pattern of the growth behavior, of increasing wall size with increasing
thickness, is very similar to the films deposited at d = 3 cm.
To further investigate the crystalline quality as a function of grown thickness, Raman spectra
were taken, as shown in Fig. 5(a) and (b). The reciprocal of crystallite size has been shown to be
proportional to the full width at half maximum () value of the Raman high-frequency (E2g)
mode.10 Therefore, a decrease in the value at this frequency indicates an improvement in the
crystallization. The values of the spectra at the E2g mode were calculated for the spectra
shown in Fig. 5(a) and (b), and are given in Fig. 5(c). A lower value of the again corresponds
to higher crystalline hBN phase, and therefore improved crystalline quality of the films. As
shown in Fig. 5(c), the hBN crystallization does not change significantly with increasing film
thickness for films grown at d = 3 cm. For the films grown at d = 6 cm however, the degree of
hBN crystallization improves with increasing film thicknesses until the film thickness reaches
approximately 1 m. The poor crystalline quality for the thin films is potentially due to a high
density of the turbostratic and amorphous BN phase in between the hBN nanowalls near the
growth interface, consistent with the previous observations from Fig. 3. These overlap growth
processes are enhanced for thinner films by the existence of multiple stacking types during the
first stage of film growth.11,20,23,29 After 1 m, the measured degree of hBN crystallization for d =
6 cm does not change significantly, and the values are very similar to those measured for the
films deposited at d = 3 cm. These results are in agreement with the SEM results shown in Fig. 4.
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Figure 5. Raman spectra of the hBN films deposited at d = 3 cm (a) and d = 6 cm (b) with
different film thicknesses. The mean values of of E2g peak were evaluated from Raman
spectra measured over five different locations on each film (c). The error bars represent the
standard deviation of the mean value.
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C. Nanowall growth rate: Influence of Tsub
Figure 6. (a) Growth rates (RG) and (b) etching rates (RE) of hBN films deposited at different d,
as a function of substrate temperature (Tsub). Each point represents a single deposition or etching
experiment, with error bars computed independently for each film, as the standard deviation for
the measurement of 10 different points in the cross-sectional SEM image used for thickness
determination.
The SEM investigations of hBN nanowalls grown with different d indicate that there is an
influence of this parameter on the growth process. However, since the d has an effect on Tsub, the
observed changes in the growth process might be due only indirectly to the d. To determine the
effects of Tsub on the RG, hBN films were deposited with = 0 in two series, at d = 3 cm and 6
cm. Tsub was varied by intentionally heating a substrate to a specified temperature, which was
held constant during the deposition. The resulting RG as a function of substrate temperature are
plotted in Fig. 6(a).
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One can see that at d = 3 cm, RG values significantly reduce with increasing Tsub for Tsub > 250
C. Previous reports in the literature have found that a hydrogen etching effect becomes
prominent at higher Tsub (~350 C).12 The presence of hydrogen within the gas mixture is also
necessary to form the nanowall structures, and it is therefore expected that hydrogen plays a key
role in the plasma chemistry that determines the sample morphology. In order to investigate this
effect in the absence of other deposition processes, a series of hBN films were grown and then
exposed to hydrogen plasmas for 5 hours at various Tsub to determine the hydrogen etching rates
(RE). The exposed films used for etching were first deposited to a thickness of 700 nm on
unintentionally heated substrates at the same d used for the etching, either 3 cm or 6 cm. As
argon and nitrogen gases were not used during etching, the hydrogen gas flow rate was increased
to maintain the working pressure of 2.110-2 mbar. The resulting hydrogen RE as a function of
Tsub are given in Fig. 6(b). The hydrogen etching effect is clearly significant at d = 3 cm,
especially at high Tsub (> 250 C). As etching is a competitive process with growth, etching is
clearly a significant effect in the growth of the films deposited at d = 3 cm. The effect is much
smaller for d = 6 cm, even at high Tsub (> 250 C). Little variation in either the RG or RE values
was observed for the films deposited at d = 6 cm at low Tsub (< 250 C). We therefore attribute
the drop in growth rate observed for samples grown at high Tsub (> 250 C) and d = 3 cm to an
increase in the hydrogen etching rate under these conditions.
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Figure 7. SEM images of 1.2 m-thick films which were deposited at untilted ( = 0) d = 3 cm
(a-c) and d = 6 cm (d-f) at different substrate temperatures (Tsub).
In addition to the differences in RG observed for changes in both d and Tsub in Fig. 6, the d was
also seen to have an impact on the grown sample morphology, as shown in Fig. 4. To determine
if the morphological changes observed were merely a function of the d, or if changes in Tsub also
affect the morphology of the grown hBN nanowalls, the effect of Tsub was also independently
investigated. This investigation is shown Fig. 7, in which SEM images of 1.2 m-thick films that
were deposited on untilted substrates at d = 3 cm (Fig. 7(a-c)) and d = 6 cm (Fig. 7(d-f)) at
different Tsub are presented for comparison. 1.2 m thickness was selected so as to improve the
signal in the subsequent FTIR investigation. As shown in Fig. 7(a), the hBN phase forms
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nanowalls that branch out into wall branches or subwalls. The size of these walls varies with the
deposition temperature.
The effect of Tsub on the growth morphology is significant, as shown in Fig. 7. When Tsub is held
at 125 C at either d = 3 cm or 6 cm, the resulting morphologies of those films are very similar,
as shown in Fig. 7(b) and (e). The nanowalls grown in both cases look similar in shape and
width, with a similar number of sub-branches grown from the main walls. This means that the
growth morphology is largely dependent on a thermal effect at low Tsub ( 250 C). In particular,
the sizes of the hBN nanowalls are clearly enlarged for the film deposited at d = 6 cm with Tsub =
125 C shown in Fig. 7(e), as compared to the unintentionally heated Tsub = 78 C case shown in
Fig. 7(d). The increase in temperature also results in an increase in the RG, as shown in Fig.6 (a).
This observation is consistent with the growth mechanism proposed based on the observations
from Fig. 2, where a higher RG results in larger nanowalls. When Tsub is further increased up to
500 C, the hBN nanowall phase incrementally degenerates, due to the increasing hydrogen
etching at higher temperatures, consistent with the results shown in Fig. 6. As can be seen from
the changes observed in the morphologies at higher Tsub in Fig. 7, the effect of the hydrogen
etching appears to be to remove material from wall branches and also to truncate the heights of
main walls. These effects reduce the RG as well as the fraction of the film composed of the hBN
nanowall phase.
The nanowall morphologies observed for d = 3 cm for the unintentionally heated and 500 Cheated samples are significantly different, as seen in Fig. 7(a) and (c). As the hydrogen etching
effect is less significant for d = 6 cm, as previously shown in Fig. 6, the effect on the hBN
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nanowall phase is much less significant than for the case of d = 3 cm. A similar nanowall
morphology is retained, even at Tsub = 500 C, for d = 6 cm, as shown in Fig. 7(f). However, the
hBN nanowalls deposited at this stage are thinner than that of the films deposited at lower Tsub.
The samples grown for all the RE measurements shown in Fig. 6 were unintentionally heated
samples, such as those shown in Fig. 7(a) and (d), which show different size nanowalls. To
quantify the difference in the wall size feature distributions, the images of the hBN nanowalls
from Fig. 7(a) and Fig. 7(d) were projected onto the plane of the substrate surface and fitted as
ellipses in image processing software.32,34 The averaged widths of the walls in the given films
were determined to be (95 11) nm (d = 3 cm) and (51 9) nm (d = 6 cm). The two
unintentionally heated samples therefore show differences in morphologies, which may affect the
degree of hydrogen etching, which will be addressed later in this work.
A further effect that appears for d = 3 cm at high temperatures, e.g. at Tsub = 500 C, is that the
increasing hydrogen etching appears to have a significant effect on the nucleation process. There
is a decrease in the amount of hBN, and the growth of other phases of BN increases, forming BN
clusters like those denoted as dashed domains in Fig. 7(c). These clusters, with sizes ranging
from 500 nm to 1000 nm, form small partitions spread over the substrate surface. The formation
of these BN cluster boundaries follows the growth model of diffusion-limited aggregation.35-38
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Figure 8. Etching rates (RE) of hBN films deposited at d = 3 cm and 6 cm are plotted against the
substrate temperature (Tsub). The trends of the results from Fig. 6(b) are also shown for
comparison. The d was switched in between growth and etching, such that the d = 3 cm and 6 cm
films were hydrogen etched at d = 6 cm and 3 cm, respectively. Each data point represents a
single deposition or etching experiment, with error bars were computed as the standard deviation
of the film thickness as measured at 10 different points in the SEM image.
The results of Fig. 7(a), (d) indicate that there are significant morphological differences between
unintentionally heated films grown at d = 3 cm and d = 6 cm. To determine if the differences in
the observed RE behavior shown in Fig. 6 were due to differences primarily with the difference in
the d, or if the differences in the grown sample morphology prior to etching also had an effect,
additional unintentionally heated samples of approximately 700 nm thickness were grown, at d =
3 cm and d = 6 cm, and then were switched for the subsequent hydrogen etching, such that the
samples grown at d = 3 cm were hydrogen etched at d = 6 cm, and the samples grown at d = 6
cm were etched at d = 3 cm. Two etching experiments for each case were performed, at each Tsub
= 125 C and 500 C. The results of this investigation are plotted in Fig. 8 and show that the
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samples etched at d = 3 cm had RE of 24 and 18 nm/h (solid-circle symbols), while the samples
etched at d = 6 cm had RE of approximately 2 and 10 nm/h (open-circle symbols) in the case of
Tsub were 125 and 500 C, respectively. This clearly indicates that the hydrogen etching rate
depends not only on the d, but also on the grown sample morphology, which may be due to faster
etching of the thinner walls of the samples grown at d = 3 cm.
D. Nanowall defects
The investigation of the effect of the deposition parameters on the nanowall morphology of hBN
films has revealed the presence of defects within the grown nanowalls, such as in Fig. 3(c),
where the distance between atomic planes within the hBN nanowalls varies within a nanowall
crystal. The degree of defects existing in those films may be indirectly related to H-N, and/or HB bonds, where H radicals can become incorporated in the crystal by bonding to dangling bonds
on the B- or N-termination edges during growth.16,18-20 We attempted to measure B-H vibrations
(~2400 cm-1) however, we were not able to get a high enough signal-to-noise ratio for this
absorption feature, even with longer acquisition times. There have also been reports in the
literature16,20 that B vacancies are preferably formed, and we have therefore assumed that the
defects in our films are mostly N-H bonds. It is possible that the stoichiometry could be altered
from a 50/50 ratio of B and N by the preferential formation of B vacancies. However we assume
the effect is very small, since in our previous work the stoichiometric properties of samples
deposited with 5% H2 were reported, which were very consistent with a simulation based on a
50/50 ratio of B and N.23 The presence of H atoms within the lattice indicates the existence of
these kinds of defects within the nanowalls. FTIR spectroscopy was used to quantify the strength
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of the H-N-bond vibration modes, as a measure of the relative concentrations of H within the
various films.
(c)
absorption band area

d = 6 cm
Tsub = 375C
Figure 9. FTIR transmission spectra from 3.5 m-thick films deposited at different Tsub,
recorded around the H-N vibration mode (3436.6 cm-1), for (a) d = 3 cm and (b) d = 6 cm. (c)
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Illustration of absorption band area calculation method. The data shown is from for the FTIR
spectrum of the film deposited at d = 6 cm and Tsub = 375 C. (d) Absorption band area of the
peaks shown in (a) and (b), as a function of Tsub.
A series of 3.5 m-thick hBN films were deposited at d = 3 cm and 6 cm with different Tsub.
FTIR transmission spectra of those films were recorded at the H-N vibration mode (~ 3450 cm1 39,40
),
and the resulting transmission spectra are given in Fig. 9(a) and (b). The measurement was
taken normal to the substrate surface, i.e. parallel to the vertical standing nanowalls. The relative
strength of the H-N vibration modes were characterized by calculating the area of the infrared
absorption band,40 as is illustrated in Fig. 9(c) and the results are given in Fig. 9(d). The position
of the H-N peak can vary due to differences in H-N bond environment, which can be explained
by defects, impurities, or the presence of different phases throughout the complete film
thickness. The absorption area for the samples deposited at d = 3 cm decreases when Tsub
increases from 125 C to 250 C. This indicates that the amount of hydrogen in the sample
deposited at 125 C is higher than in the sample deposited at 250 C, though following this
decrease, the quantity of H in the films remains relatively constant with increasing temperature
for d = 3 cm. This change at Tsub 250 C could be due to an increase in hydrogen desorption
processes during growth at higher temperatures.41 A decrease in the number of H atoms attaching
to dangling bonds at N-terminated edges that are subsequently incorporated into hBN nanowalls
may also lower the probability for branch or sub-nanowall formation. The break in the symmetry
of the crystal caused by the H-defect could provide a location for the nucleation of a new wall
branch. This would indicate that wall branches have a higher chance to form in the samples
deposited at lower Tsub ( 250 C) in comparison with the samples deposited at high Tsub. For
films deposited at d = 6 cm, a significant reduction is seen when Tsub increases from 78 C to 125
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C. The measured absorption then remains at this absorption level as Tsub increases to 250 C.
This is perhaps an analogous mechanism to the reduction in absorption seen in the d = 3 cm case,
though the decrease was noted there at a higher temperature, between 125 C and 250 C. This
effect is therefore potentially due to the change in the H desorption rate during growth between
unintentionally heating and heating the substrates from below during deposition. Further
increasing Tsub at d = 6 cm shows a continual decrease in the measured absorption as Tsub
increases to 500 C. In this range of Tsub, the role of hydrogen desorption is mostly similar for the
samples deposited at both d. This is the expected result, since hydrogen desorbs much faster at
higher growth temperatures, leading to less H-N bonds in those samples.41
E. Nanowall optical and structural properties: Influence of Tsub
As shown in Fig. 7, Tsub can have a significant effect on the grown nanowall morphology, and
the results of the FTIR investigation shown in Fig. 9 indicate that Tsub can also affect the amount
of hydrogen incorporated in the films during growth. To determine if the differences in the
growth morphology and hydrogen defect concentration in the films affect the crystalline quality
of the hBN phase, films grown at different Tsub were investigated by Raman spectroscopy.
Raman spectra of two series of 700 nm-thick hBN films, deposited at d = 3 cm and 6 cm, were
measured, as shown in Fig. 10(a) and (b). The values of the spectra at the E2g mode were
calculated as was done in Fig. 5(c), and are given in Fig. 10(c). The observed fluctuations in the
degree of hBN crystallization correspond approximately to the relative levels of hydrogen in
those films, as measured by FTIR and given in Fig. 9.
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(cm-1)
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Figure 10. Raman spectra of the 700 nm-thick hBN films deposited at d = 3 cm (a) and d = 6 cm
(b) at different Tsub. (c) values calculated from the above spectra as a function of Tsub. A
decrease in the indicates an increase in crystalline quality.
F. Nanowall thermal stability: Influence of annealing temperature
We have shown in Fig. 9 that the amount of H grown into the hBN nanowall structures varies
with temperature, and also have shown in Fig. 10 that the crystalline quality varies in a similar
way. To separate the effect of growth parameters from the role of hydrogen, annealing on grown
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films can be performed, to allow the H to diffuse out of the hBN nanowall structures.
Characterization of annealed films can therefore determine the thermal stability of H-N bonds,
and also the resulting changes in the crystalline quality, as measured by the strength of the
phonon modes in the hBN films. The phonon modes can also be investigated by FTIR, similar to
the H-N vibration mode (3436.6 cm-1) analysis as shown in Fig. 9. The optical phonon modes of
the hBN can be observed by the B-N bending (A2u (LO) at 817 cm-1) and B-N stretching (E1u
(TO) at 1376 cm-1) absorption features.7-10,39-41
Figure 11. FTIR transmission spectra of (a) as-deposited, (b) 750 C- and (c) 1000 C-annealed
films with the thickness of 1.2 m.
Three 1.2 m-thick films were deposited with the same deposition conditions, at d = 3 cm on
unintentionally heated substrates. 1.2 m thicknesses were selected to improve the FTIR signal
for the subsequent analysis. Two films were annealed at 750 C and 1000 C in a high vacuum
(10-6 mbar) for 5.5 hours. The FTIR transmission spectra for the films are given in Fig. 11. The
optical phonon modes of the hBN can be observed by the B-N bending (A2u (LO) at 817 cm-1)
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and B-N stretching (E1u (TO) at 1376 cm-1) as shown in Fig. 11 (a) and (b). The measured
phonon modes are mostly unchanged for the 750 C-annealed film, as compared to the asdeposited film. After annealing to 1000 C, the A2u (LO) and E1u (TO) phonon modes are
annihilated, indicating that the crystalline structure is significantly damaged. The crystalline
quality can also be observed in the SEM images of the as-deposited film and annealed films,
shown in Fig. 12. The as-deposited film and the film annealed to 750 C both show good
crystalline quality. The film annealed to 1000 C however shows the appearance of more defects.
This is consistent with the observations of the crystalline structure in Fig. 11.
Figure 12. SEM images showing the morphologies of the three films analyzed in Fig. 11. (a) asdeposited, (b) 750 C- and (c) 1000 C-annealed films the thicknesses of 1.2 m.
The H-N vibration mode (3436.6 cm-1), measured by FTIR transmission spectroscopy, for the
three samples is shown in Fig. 11(c). The H-N vibration gradually decreased with increasing
annealing temperature, indicating that hydrogen desorption occurs during annealing, and that this
desorption is a temperature dependent process, with greater desorption at the higher temperature.
The loss of crystal quality at 1000 C, as noted by the annihilation of the phonon modes in Fig.
11(a) and (b), may be caused by this H-desorption process. It has been shown in literature that
desorption of H is nearly complete for BN annealed to 1000 C.16,42,43 As the H leaves the
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crystalline lattice, a number of vacancies appear within the structure. As a result, the hBN
nanowalls and wall-branches appear significantly more defective in the 1000 C-annealed film,
as shown in Fig. 12(c). These observations are consistent with theoretical predictions and
experimental results observed by other authors.16,42-44
The loss of the phonon modes in the 1000 C-annealed film can also be explained by the
formation of non-crystalline phases within the nanowall structures. At such high annealing
temperature the migration of single B and N vacancies can be thermally activated allowing the
formation of more stable BN di-vacancies. As a result, the hBN lattice could become distorted
and/or rippled16 and hBN is possibly converted to aBN and/or tBN. Even though most of the
microscale nanowalls remain, the presence of other phases within the structures could break the
long range crystalline order which allows LO and TO phonon mode propagation.
G. Nanowall growth mechanism
The analysis of the hBN nanowall growth performed in this work has given significant insight
into the growth mechanism and nanowall formation. This greater understanding of the growth
mechanism now allows us to propose an overall growth scheme for the hBN nanowall formation,
as shown in Fig. 13, in which the formation of five imperfect nanosheets is illustrated
schematically. The results of the cross-sectional SEM investigation shown in Fig. 2 suggested
that there is an interfacial layer that forms before the crystalline hBN nanosheets begin to grow,
and the HRTEM investigation of Fig. 3 showed that this interfacial layer is composed of
turbostratic and amorphous BN phases. This phase is shown just above the substrate surface in
Fig. 13. After the turbostratic and amorphous layer forms at the surface, regions of hBN phase
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begin to nucleate, as seen in Fig. 3(c). The turbostratic and amorphous layers still form, but
become limited to the spaces in between the hBN nanowalls.
Figure 13. Schematic diagram showing the growth mechanism of an imperfect hBN nanowall
The hBN phase that forms is not perfect, as also shown in Fig. 3(c), where the spacing between
adjacent nanosheets varies slightly, indicating the presence of defects. This is shown in the inset
of Fig. 13, where a side-on view of a defective hBN nanosheet is shown schematically. The
defects arise from displaced boron or nitrogen atoms during growth, which leave vacancies in the
grown hBN structure. Both boron and nitrogen atoms can be displaced during a deposition,
however boron vacancies have previously been shown to be preferentially formed.20,43 The boron
vacancies leave N-terminated edges in the hBN lattice, and atomic hydrogen in the growth
plasma is subsequently able to be incorporated into the hBN nanosheets through the dangling
bonds at those N-terminated edges. The presence of these H-N bonds within the hBN structure
was confirmed by the FTIR results, as shown in Fig. 9. The unsaturated N atoms within the
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nanowalls can also interact with the terminated edges of other adjacent hBN nanosheets, and also
can act as nucleation sites for nanosheets that expand outward in a different direction. Thus, the
dangling bonds of N can act as agents for nucleation of the growth of branches or subwalls from
main nanowalls.
CONCLUSIONS
The growth behavior of hBN nanowall films deposited by unbalanced RF sputtering were
investigated by means of variations of target-to-substrate distance (d), substrate temperature
(Tsub) and substrate tilting angle (). Our results demonstrate that the structural and optical
properties of deposited hBN nanowall films are dependent on these parameters. Thin films
deposited at shorter d showed higher RG, higher porosity and more well-defined crystallization of
the hBN nanowall phase, as compared to the results obtained for farther d. Depositing at = 90
was found to decrease the RG, and alter the structural properties of the deposited films. However,
even at = 90 the orientation of the main hBN nanowalls remained vertical with respect to the
substrate surface, i.e. independent of the degree of substrate tilting. This implies that the growth
behavior is governed by chemical processes rather than physical ones. Thin films deposited at
higher RG showed larger hBN nanowalls, however the turbostratic and amorphous phase of BN
was not completely suppressed in the deposited samples. Thus, the growth mechanism of hBN
nanowalls is a competitive process between different phases of BN that form during a deposition.
We also found that the hydrogen etching, hydrogen incorporation during growth, and thermal
effects also play important roles in determining the properties of the hBN films. The relative
quantity of defects in the deposited hBN nanowalls were characterized by FTIR by measuring
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the H-N bonds at N-terminated points of hBN nanosheets. Finally, based on the results of this
work, a growth mechanism illustrating the formation of a hBN nanowall was presented.
Corresponding Authors:
Tel.: +32 1126 8848. Fax: +32 1126 8899. E-mail: quang.hoang@uhasselt.be
Tel.: +32 1126 8875. Fax: +32 1126 8899. E-mail: ken.haenen@uhasselt.be
Author Contributions:
The manuscript was realized through contributions of all authors. DQH, PP and SDJ designed
experiments and carried out the hBN nanowall depositions, FTIR and Raman measurements. ST
and JD performed TEM and SEM imaging characterization. KH coordinated the study and wrote
the manuscript together with DQH, SSN, and MKVB. All authors discussed the obtained results
and have given approval to the final version of the manuscript.
Notes:
The authors declare no competing financial interest
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors want to thank J. Baccus, B. Ruttens, E. Thoonen, W. Dexters, S. Drijkoningen, and
M. Van Gompel for technical and experimental assistance and fruitful discussions. PP and ST are
Postdoctoral Fellows of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), while SDJ is a JSPS
Postdoctoral Fellow.
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For Table of Contents Use Only
Elucidation of the growth mechanism of sputtered 2D hexagonal

boron nitride nanowalls
D.Q. Hoang, P. Pobedinskas, S.S. Nicley, S. Turner, S.D. Janssens, M.K. Van Bael, J. DHaen,
K. Haenen
We present hexagonal boron nitride nanowall synthesis using the unbalanced RF sputtering
technique. By varying several deposition parameters and analyzing the grown samples with a
wide range of advanced characterization techniques, we are able to propose a model based on
chemical rather than physical processes governing the growth. The results provide insight the
role of temperature for defect and wall formation.
35

Growth Mechanism BN

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Growth Mechanism BN

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Elucidation of the growth mechanism of

Crystal Growth & Design

Elucidation of the growth mechanism of sputtered

Institute for Materials Research (IMO), Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium

IMOMEC, IMEC vzw, Diepenbeek, Belgium

E-mails: quang.hoang@uhasselt.be and ken.haenen@uhasselt.be

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Crystal Growth & Design

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mass flow controllers

Crystal Growth & Design

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. Nanowall growth rate and orientation: Influence of d and

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B. Nanowall optical and structural properties: Influence of film thicknesses

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C. Nanowall growth rate: Influence of Tsub

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absorption band area

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E. Nanowall optical and structural properties: Influence of Tsub

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F. Nanowall thermal stability: Influence of annealing temperature

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